The Men - New Moon lp (Sacred Bones Records)

$9.99

SALE PRICE!!!!"With their fourth full-length album to be released in as many years, The Men proudly present the sweeping New Moon,
their most intensely personal and immersive installment yet. Never
content to draw on the same methods twice, nor to recline under the heel
of expectation, The Men quit the city in early 2012 to head for Big
Indian, NY — transforming a remote Catskills locale into a full-fledged
stray dog studio home. Taking complete advantage of dry eyes and clear
mountain mornings, the band has never before so thoroughly surrendered
their writing process, or themselves for that matter, to the recording
environment.

Entering with only the most skeletal sketches, the
house was selected as an incubator for its technical limitations,
32-hour orbit and predisposal to celestial intervention. Familiar faces
remain, the core of guitarists Nick Chiericozzi and Mark Perro, with
drummer Rich Samis all returning from 2012’s much-acclaimed Open Your Heart.
In addition, friend and producer Ben Greenberg (Pygmy Shrews, Hubble,
Zs) officially joins the ranks as bassist on paper, and full-bore
compositional partner in practice. Wayward brother Kevin Faulkner
occupies his most substantial sphere to date, dreaming aloud on lap
steel as before along with whatever else was demanded of him.

The
Men’s oft-cited commitment to their “no-one-is-frontman” maxim surely
insists itself all the more emphatically here… so much so that it
practically creates a new band in the process. This unique situation
induces a fresh fluidity amongst their roles and instrumentation,
allowing for an expansion of palette and a contraction of focus. Piano,
mandolin, harmonica, four-part vocal harmonies and even no-input harsh
noise all weave their way through New Moon. Spiritually, it is
hedged with as much leaden dirge and ecstatic abandon, as it is genuine
saccharine steel-string levity, and an ever-tightening, no apologies pop
concision. Summarily: New Moon is the remembrance of why green
grass has to lean on the dirt beneath; it is a love letter devoted in
bowed humility to the grand continuum, exposing the hoax of the great
divide. Allegiances to the glowing patinas of Detroit and San Francisco,
New York and Nashville all abound, but “nostalgia” is not her name. The
essence of New Moon is to revisit — never retread. Vibrational bonds
are the silver that comes to line the long road home." - SACRED BONES RECORDS